"Mom! Dad!" Stevie runs to her parents who just arrived in Abu Dhabi for the last race weekend of this season.
"Stevie! Oh darling you look so good!" Trudy wraps her arms around her daughter tightly.
The last time they saw each other was before she left for Singapore and that was almost two months ago.
Stevie loves having her parents here for this final weekend. It's been so long since they were together and talking over FaceTime just isn't the same.
"Daddy!"
She turns to her father once her mom has finally let go of her and he pulls her into his famous bear hugs.
"Steevs, god we've missed you so much. But you look amazing. You look happy." He sees the sparkle in her eyes, the wide smile on her face and she even seems a bit fuller which fills him with happiness. She lost so much weight after her surgery and Mitch his betrayal. But now she looks healthy again and that's all that matters.
"I am happy dad. But I sure did miss you guys.
Cole and Zara will be so happy to see you. They are with Tina at the hotel."
She felt it was best to pick her parents up from the airport herself and then they can have all the time they want with Cole and Zara when they get to the hotel.
She will have to get to work when she gets back, it might be media day, but it's also the last weekend of the season and there are loads of celebrity guests in the paddock who need to be fed and pampered.
"Let's go. I want to see those two munchkins. I can't believe Zara is already six months now. And we didn't even get to celebrate your birthday properly."
Stevie turned 26 on the 29th of September which was the Thursday before the Singapore weekend started, so she didn't really celebrate it at all.
She spent the night with Daniel, Tina, Seb and Melissa having dinner in the hotel before Tina took the kids to bed so the other grown ups could enjoy a non alcoholic drink in the bar.
Daniel did arrange for a small birthday cake to be brought out for her which was very sweet.
But she only told him on the day so he didn't have time to buy her a present. Something he didn't like the slightest. But that night he came up with something and he has been working on that together with her parents and Blake.
It will be a very late birthday present but he hopes she will love it nonetheless.
It's an emotional reunion when Peter and Trudy see their grandkids again. Zara now able to sit up in a highchair. Eating fruit and vegetables and having her first two teeth which caused her face to lose that infant look.
It wasn't easy when Zara was toothing, she woke up a lot, was drooling all over the place and her nappies were the worst. Stevie knew what to expect as she went through it with Cole, but with Zara sleeping in the same bedroom as her and Daniel most of the time, they didn't really get to the romantic bits.
She knows how much Daniel would like to take the next step and if she is really honest with herself, so does she. But her insecurity is still winning it from her desire to be intimate with Daniel.
He hasn't tried anything, they kiss and he loves having his hands on her ass when they do that. She also feels his bulge grow every single time they lock lips, but he is extremely patient and that makes her adore him even more.
Who is she kidding, she loves him. She loves him more than she ever thought she could love anybody ever again. She just hasn't been brave enough to tell him that.
When she sees Tina and Charles being able to show their love out in public and Seb and Melissa who are unable to keep their hands off each other, she hates herself for not being able to give that to Daniel as well.
She will somehow have to muster up the courage to tell him, he deserves to know what he means to her. She just doesn't know how and when.
All she does know is that after this weekend they will spend a few more days here as they have tire tests and then Daniel will come back to the UK for a few more days until he is off to his family in Perth and she won't see him until he comes back somewhere at the end of January or early februari when they are going to reveal the new car.
She is dreading that time apart, but she did decide she will go look for a house of her own again. Daniel doesn't seem to mind that they are staying at her parents when he comes over, but she feels they need a place of their own to have some more privacy and to be able to enjoy breakfast without the suggestive looks of her dad who is still waiting for them to make their relationship official.
Her parents offered to stay with Cole and Zara so Stevie and Tina can both go to the track. Tina enjoys the wag life a lot, but she definitely had her struggles when the online trolls tried to destroy her completely.
They have been trash talking about her working as a nanny for somebody who works at the competition and they judge her for going after Charles. The people online have said that she is just a poor girl wanting Charles for his money. They claim she is wrong for him and that he deserves better. They even say that Tina was the one hitting on Charles even though it was the other way around.
It made her doubt if she was strong enough after all, but with Charles support she gained more confidence and now both of them just ignore what's been said and Tina barely uses social media anymore.
Melissa and Seb are the perfect couple, it's almost nauseating. In Austin they made their first public appearance and again people lost their minds over them. Of course they had their opinion ready, but Melissa doesn't give a shit about that. She actually enjoys reading the social media posts about herself, even the nasty ones.
When Stevie asks her how she can be so cool about it, she just says that she is the one who gets to shag Seb. And she is the one who hears Seb tell her he loves her every single day, multiple times a day.
Why would she care about other people's opinions when they don't matter?
"Tina with my parents here how about you take this weekend off. Just be with Charles when he isn't driving, hang out with your friends, do whatever you want." Stevie says when they arrive at the paddock.
"Are you sure? I mean I already have about 3 months off after this weekend, so I don't mind helping you out."
"I'm sure. My parents would love to be with Zara and Cole this weekend and they can take them to the paddock with them. You know you can come to see them whenever you want during the winter break right?"
She will miss her Slovenian friend so much those months, but Tina deserves to have a break as well. She will probably go home to see her family and spend quite some time with Charles and his family.
"I will definitely come over to see you and the kids, there's no way I can stay away from them for so long. I'm glad I've got a lot plans for the break so time will go by really fast." Her friend says before they part ways so Tina can go to Ferrari to find Charles and Stevie goes to the kitchen to prepare for today and the rest of the weekend.
Not long after she got there Melissa joins her.
Stevie smiles when she sees her now best friend appear with swollen lips from kissing.
"You look like you had a good time."
"It would have been even better if Seb didn't have to go to the media pen. But we will make up for it tonight."
Stevie shakes her head, Melissa and Seb are insatiable, but she is happy for them. Maybe if she would finally get over her insecurities she would be the same with Daniel.
"So did you and Daniel do it yet? I mean you're together like 24/7, so it has happened by now right?" Melissa asks her.
With a sad face she shakes her head.
"No we haven't. I know he wants to and I do too, but every time I even consider taking my clothes off for him I just feel sick with fear and I freeze."
Melissa looks at her with sympathy in her eyes.
"You should know that he won't care about those scars. That man loves you and he would still love you if you have three boobs. Heck he'd probably be thrilled." She laughs.
"Maybe he won't care. It's just my head won't stop repeating the words Mitch said about it when he first saw it and I just fucks me up so bad."
"Come with me." Melissa suddenly says.
"To go where?" Stevie has no idea why Melissa wants to go somewhere all of a sudden.
"Just follow me. We still have some time before things have to be ready. Besides the crew is prepping so we can step out. Just trust me."
Totally confused Stevie follows Melissa outside. They don't go far, because next door are the drivers rooms and Melissa has the key for Sebs room in her pocket.
She unlocks the door and almost drags Stevie inside before closing the door again.
"Why are we here?" Stevie asks Melissa again.
"Because we have privacy here. Now show me." She stands there with her hands on her hips.
"Show you what?"
"Show me your boobs. Let me see how 'horrible' it looks." Melissa looks at Stevie dead serious.
"What? You want me to show you my boobs? Are you mad?" Stevie wraps her arms around her chest. She hasn't showed anybody her breasts after surgery. Not even her parents. And now Melissa wants her to just lift up her shirt and show her.
"I'm not mad, but apparently you are convinced that it looks disgusting so let me see so I can be the judge of that. You know 🎶Drop em out let me see those titties, gonna take a long look at those tig ol' bitties🎶" she starts to sing some redneck song.
Stevie snorts with laughter when she hears her friend who is now doing some sort of silly line dancing moves through the room.
"Oh my god you are nuts." She laughs.
"Maybe, but I'll be honest. It's not like I don't have boobs as well. I've seen plenty in my life, so I'm sure yours won't be too shocking. It's not like mind are so perfect. I used to be a lot heavier and after losing a lot of weight, they are definitely not what they used to be. But you know, I don't care and Seb worships them, so I'm not going to complain." Melissa just sounds so confident and normal about it.
Stevie thinks about it for a moment, she trusts Melissa not to tell anybody about this or make fun of her. Could she just show her friend her scars? It would be a big step to take, but if anybody will be honest about it, it's her.
"Alright, ok I'll show you. You'll be the first to see it though. Besides Mitch that is."
"Yeah well Mitch is a cockroach who needs to be stepped on. I think my opinion should be worth a lot more. Now show me those honckers." She grins, trying to make the situation a bit lighter.
With trembling hands Stevie pulls her team polo over her head, leaving her in a purple lace bra.
"Ooooh love the bra! That's sexy!" Melissa exclaims when she sees it.
"Thanks. I really like it too. Let's hope I can show it to Daniel at some point."
She swallows as she reaches behind her to unhook the bra. Once the hooks are undone she feels she straps drop down over her shoulders. With her arm in front of her chest she holds the bra in place, feeling sick with nerves to show Melissa her mutilated breasts.
"Stevie it's ok, I swear nothing you are going to show me will shock me. I'm your friend and I love you. I just want you to feel confident enough so you can let Daniel give you a proper fucking. You deserve to not be able to walk afterwards because he made you feel things you haven't felt before. You deserve to be on the bed shaking from an orgasm that blew your mind." Melissa puts her hand on Stevie's arm.
"You and Daniel both deserve to enjoy the physical part of your relationship just as much as the emotional part. Don't be afraid to show me. It's just me here, nobody else."
Taking a few deep breaths Stevie slowly removes her arm from her chest, the bra falls to the floor and she closes her eyes when she feels Melissa's eyes on her.
"God I hate you." She suddenly hears her friend say.
She opens her eyes not sure why Melissa would say that.
"Wh... what?"
"Look at you, you are just so fucking gorgeous it's not fair. I don't hate you though. I love you."
Melissa looks at her friends body and is stunned by how beautiful she really is. You would never say she had two babies and one only six months ago.
"Oh, ehm... I... thanks."
Fidgeting with the bra in her hands Stevie stands there as Melissa looks at her scars.
"So that's it? Those lines from your nipples down?" Melissa asks.
"Yeah."
Its literally two straight lines down over the curve of both breasts. For Melissa it's nothing shocking. The only thing that is shocking to her is that Stevie needed this surgery at such a young age. But the scars are not bad at all.
"Oh honey and this is what you've been so worried about? They are not disgusting, they are hardly there. Yeah they are still a little bit pink, but that will fade. Did that fucking dickhead really tell you this was disgusting?"
Melissa can't believe the audacity of that asshole.
"Yeah, it was the day after surgery, so it still had stitches in and it was swollen and stuff. He just said it would never become good again." Stevie admits. She really wants to believe Melissa, but Mitch his words have left such a deep impression in her head that they are hard to replace with positive things.
"Do they feel weird? Those scars? Are they swollen or anything?" Melissa steps closer to see better, but she really doesn't see anything her friend should be worried about and she is certain Daniel won't either. He's probably going to cum in his pants when he sees this beautiful woman naked for the first time.
"I don't know, I guess they feel a bit different than the rest, but I don't really touch them." Stevie admits. She washes her body of course, but doesn't exactly take her time to really feel her scars.
"May I?" Melissa asks. For her this is nothing strange, she has seen her college friends boobs so often that it's normal.
"You want to touch me?"
"Just the scars. But it's ok if you don't feel comfortable."
After a short moment of silence Stevie shrugs.
"Well you are already staring at them from like two inches away, might as well have a feel as well."
She starts to laugh, thinking about how crazy this situation is. But it's Melissa and somehow it feels ok and safe.
When Melissa touches the scars, Stevie doesn't actually feel it. The scars are numb so she barely notices Melissa actually touching her.
"Oh they don't feel that different. You know that surgeon really did an amazing job. You can't even tell they reconstructed anything. Maybe I should get mind lifted a bit." She jokes.
She won't, because if a body is healthy why cut in it? But the doctors really did an amazing job with Stevie's breasts. She has boobs many women would be jealous about and many men will fantasize about when masturbating.
"Now this is something straight out of a very naughty fantasy." They suddenly hear Sebs voice come from behind Melissa.
In pure panic Stevie looks for her shirt, but it's on the floor so she quickly covers her naked breasts with her hands.
"Fucking hell Seb, you could have knocked." Melissa curses at her boyfriend.
"It's my room, I didn't know you were in here. What are you doing anyways? Why is Stevie topless and can I join in?" Seb walks in and shuts the door behind him.
"Here I was thinking I was enough for you." Melissa says joking.
"You are schatz, you are. But would you please explain why you were checking out Stevie's boobs?"
Seb looks at Stevie who is still frozen in her place, unable to move or say anything.
"Stevie are you ok? Don't worry I won't look if you want to get dressed, but you can't blame me for being curious about this situation."
Melissa suddenly gets an idea, but she doesn't think Stevie would do it. It's worth the try though.
"Stevie, can we tell Seb? I mean if he knows maybe he can tell you what he would think if he was Daniel. He knows Daniel like the back of his hand so I'm sure he would know how Daniel would react."
Stevie looks at her with her big, bright blue eyes as Melissa's words slowly sink in.
It's a scary thought to tell Seb about it, but Melissa does have a point. Seb is honest and he does know Daniel really well.
Could she really open up to Seb even before she tells Daniel?
It might help her get enough courage to open up to Daniel though. She loves Seb as a close friend and she values his opinion.
But she values Daniel's more and if Seb can convince her that Daniel would accept her like this, maybe she would finally be able to take that next step and tell Daniel the truth about her cancer.
Seb has been waiting patiently without saying a word. He feels Stevie has an internal conflict about something very serious and he knows not to say anything right now.
Then they see Stevie slowly nod and take a deep breath before she starts to speak.
"A couple of months ago, in August, I got diagnosed with breast cancer." She says and it feels like somebody threw a bucket of ice cold water in Sebs face.
"What? Oh my god are you..?"
She quickly shakes her head.
"I'm ok now. The tumors were removed and they haven't spread. I'm healthy right now and I plan to be for a very long time."
"Oh thank god. But that's awful that you had to go through that." Seb feels so relieved she is ok. It would have broken Daniel's heart if Stevie was sick and maybe even dying.
"Yeah well after the surgery Mitch saw the incisions and he told me it was disgusting and ugly and it would always stay horrible."
Hearing that, Sebs blood starts to boil. For a man to say something like that at a moment where his partner was extremely vulnerable, makes him feel sick.
If he would ever run into that twat, he would love to have a little word with him.
"He was talking bullshit Stevie. Those incisions saved your life. Him saying that is absolutely disgusting and a lie."
Stevie smiles at him thanking him with just her eyes.
"Look her ex told her those things and now she feels insecure about the scars she has. She is afraid Daniel will find them repulsive as well." Melissa adds.
"What? Really? You think that?" Seb asks completely stunned.
Stevie nods looking down at her hands still on her chest.
"Just look at it Seb. Look at it and tell me it's not something that would turn you off immediately." With a courage she didn't know she had in her she removes her hands showing her full, naked chest to Seb.
Her legs are shaking and her heart is racing as she expects Seb to pull a face of disgust.
Instead Seb clears his throat when he sees Stevie's full, beautiful breasts.
This is not what he expected to see today, but he is enjoying the view to the max.
"What am I exactly looking at? Well boobs of course, but what is wrong with them?" He asks her. All he can see is a stunning woman with a stunning pair of breasts.
"The scars Seb." Stevie points them out.
"Scars? Oh those. I didn't even notice them. I don't see anything wrong with your breasts Stevie."
He hands her her bra and shirt that were on the floor, so she can get dressed.
"How can you not notice them? They are so obvious." Stevie puts her bra back on and pulls the shirt back over her head. Suddenly feeling shy that she actually showed her breasts to Seb.
"Stevie they were not the first thing I saw. I'm a guy and I like boobs. I happen to know that Daniel does too. All I saw was a perfect pair of breasts and Daniel will see that too. We are simple guys. We see the good parts first, often we don't even notice the things you girls are insecure about. Not until you point them out and then we still don't care or think any less of you. We don't care about scars or stretch marks or a little bit of a tummy. We love every single part of your bodies, even the ones you don't like."
Melissa's heart swells with love for her man, he might say he is a simple man, but he sure knows his way with words. He also knows how to make a woman feel good about herself. She is living proof of that.
"But Mitch..." Stevie starts.
"Mitch was a dumb, shallow motherfucker. You shouldn't even think about what he said, because he is not a man. He was still a boy even at his age. Boys don't look further than the surface. Men do. Daniel is a man, he already adores you and he will want you still when he has seen what I just saw. And all I saw was a breath taking young woman with a body that was just as breath taking. Please let go of that fear and please tell Daniel about this. If you want to build something with him he has the right to know."
Stevie looks Seb in the eyes and all she can see is sincerity and honesty.
"You won't tell him right Seb?" She asks him a bit worried.
"It's not my job to tell him. But I know how crazy he is about you and he doesn't understand why you won't take the next step with him. He will wait for you, I know he will. But don't make him think it's something about him. He might seem very confident, but he isn't as tough as he wants to look."
He walks over to Stevie who is now looking at the tips of her shoes.
He lifts up her chin so she looks up at him again. Tears are forming in her eyes and he feels so bad for her.
"Hey, don't cry. I don't want to make you feel bad. You and Daniel are perfect for each other and I just think once you tell him and you will find out that I am right about how he will react, that it would make you able to finally relax about it and enjoy all aspects of your relationship. You can let go of those insecurities, Daniel can do that for you. Just let him. Tell him and then let him in. He is not going to hurt you, I can guarantee that."
"Thank you Seb. I will think about it. But I have to let it all sink in right now. I think I should be getting back to the kitchen to see how things go there. Just don't tell anyone about what I told you and that I showed you my..."
She moves her hand in front of her chest.
"I promise I won't tell anybody. Just remember what I told you ok?" Seb asks and when Stevie nods he pulls her in for a hug.
For him everything is so clear now, he totally gets why Stevie is so reluctant to be intimate with Daniel. But he also knows he is right about Daniel.
Daniel will love her no matter what.